RICHARD TURNER OF BLACKBERRY SMOKE

Photo Credit: Paul Undersigner

“My earliest recollection of Orange Amplifiers is through Black Sabbath videos. You can’t tell by television speakers what an amp sounds like and it was just a prop in a video anyway… They were very rare in my neck of the woods… The next time I saw them was while working with the Black Crowes. They have quite a collection of fine sounding amps. This offered an opportunity to actually A-B dozens of legendary setups. One of the old 4×12’s from Orange got a real workout and had a warm, thick quality to it. I don’t recall the particular amp, but the cabinet was very popular that summer. As a bass player, I thought I’d never get to actually play a bass specific Orange rig… Years later I found myself playing at NAMM for Orange’s 40th anniversary, an interesting side note; Marc Ford, former Black Crowe was with his band as well…I played through a 15″ & 4×10″ and a MK lll 200 watt head. Afterward, I was how I liked it… I told the gentleman I liked it very much… He told me he’d see about getting it sent to my house… Turns out he is the company owner. I still play the same rig nearly eight years later on a daily basis from bars to stadiums. Only re-tubed it ONE TIME!!!!”